Blender to Shockwave 3D

[malCanDo]

Hi all,

I'm working on a solution for college game design modules, and am currently working in supported 3D modelling packages ( eg 3DS Max, Maya etc ).

http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign


This shows our building block level editor, teaching basic concepts of game design to students of all ages.


This shows one of our online portfolio style solutions, where students can quickly learn game design skills, while they are learning basic 3D modelling skills, and upload a playable version of their level to their website ( free Shockwave plugin required ).




I'd really like to get Blender in there as well, especially for smaller colleges who maybe can't afford the licenses for the commercial applications.

At the moment, there seems to be a stand-alone ( and opensourced ) XSI converter for SoftImage files to Shockwave 3D format.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xsi2w3d

There could be 2 solutions...
1) Can Blender export XSI files? If so, I could see about setting up a ( complicated ) export path for the artists. This would not be ideal, as the focus should be on creativity and design for the students, and NOT having to export, run a separate process, then run the app etc.

2) As this is an open-source project, the code and techniques could be adapted to an open-source project for Blender direct to Shockwave. Does anyone have experience with exporter scripts, and would like to take a look at this ( Shockwave 3D export would be a great asset to Blender, especially if the web plugin isn't being currently updated etc, to allow people to show their work online ( the Shockwave plugin installed is on over 2 of every 3 machines, according to recent stats ) ).

I look forward to hearing any suggestions!

Regards...
Mal

[z3r0_d]

I like the sound of number 2 a lot more

though, I wonder how logicbricks and python can be ported....
[not if, but how]

[bfvietnam]

Why not make it in blender, I mean what does macromedia's product offer that blender doesn't already?

[joeri]

besides a web-plugin that's supported?

[chimera]

besides a web-plugin that's supported?

well spoted

[malCanDo]

> besides a web-plugin that's supported?

lol, hopefully in time the Blender plugin will be re-developed, but for now why not use the most popular 3D plugin on the planet ( Windows / OSX, plus Linux if you use the CrossWeaver WINE stuff ).

For basic model viewing, I could write a quick scalable viewer ( with Blender logo etc ) that loaded an external Shockwave 3D file.

This would allow the content exported by the plugin to be easily viewed ( place the viewer and Shockwave 3D file on your site, link to the viewer, and rotate around your model ).

Mal